Snow on the Plains
by AlexisChristofori
Summary: With the death of her uncle, the Marquess of Caelin, Lyn slips away with Florina to return to the plains before the duties of the Marchioness of Caelin can rein her back in. Mostly a collection of one or two-shot vignettes about their life and relationship on the plains. Rated M on the assumption that a T rating would need to be bumped up eventually.
1. 00 - In Which Leave is Silently Taken

_Author's Notes: Fire Emblem is not my property, nor are Lyndis and Florina themselves. Said characters are property of Intelligent Systems and the people who participated in their creation. Cover art graciously permitted by AutumnSacura, taken from DeviantArt. I have no particular plan for this story, and may occasionally ask for reader input when at a crossroads, or simply pick things up from comments if people are kind enough to leave any. Mostly this exists so that when my brain fails to give me anything to work with on my original works, I can still keep my head in the game writing _something._ But I hope you'll enjoy it regardless! Any and all feedback is appreciated beyond my ability to relay._

00 - In Which Leave is Silently Taken

"It's too cold!"

"But I'm used to the cold..."

"I'm not! I'm used to the plains and inside the keep!"

"But...but what if someone sees u-"

Strong arms encircled the smaller girl, stopping the fidgeting that she was about to begin. She stiffened briefly, then relaxed a little, though sea-green eyes still glanced about furtively.

Lyndis sighed exaggeratedly as she allowed herself to fall back down onto her bedroll, dragging Florina down with her so that the other girl had little choice but to lose her footing and fall down onto the older girl's lap. "It's too cold for _me_ to ride without something to keep me warm," she explained more quietly, propping her chin on Florina's shoulder and watching her pale cheeks grow darker.

The pegasus knight's fingers were still free though, and they picked at the edge of the tunic she had half-on, worrying at a loose thread. Lyn watched her for a moment, making a mental note to deal with that thread that evening when they made camp again, then gave the girl in her arms a squeeze and pulled her closer. "Ought I add a 'please?'"

Florina squirmed, and Lyn hid a grin against the girl's shoulder. Though she had been slowly breaking Florina of the need to stand on rank and title with her, it was a long and uphill battle, even after abdicating her position as Marchioness of Caelin. Technically, she was just a noble-blooded bum, but even still Florina seemed to have problems with formality. She appeared _especially_ bothered by _Lyn_ essentially begging _her_ for anything. "No..." the smaller girl eventually answered, tone low with either reluctance or shyness. Lyn opted to believe the latter.

"Good," she quipped, lifting her face again. "I'd prefer to save 'please' for something else." Florina's cheeks colored darker before Lyn leaned forward just enough to press a quick kiss to one, then patted Florina's leg and made to stand, slowly enough that Florina could get to her feet before being dumped off.

Standing up herself Lyn smoothed down the front of her clothes. They were more accommodating to colder temperatures than what had been her standard fare on the plains. A full-length skirt in blues with green trim, it still had the long slits up the sides to allow her to ride and run without a problem. It kept her legs much warmer, as well, but still felt a little too much for her. She preferred the light and free feeling of her old one-piece wrap. But it was packed with the rest of her things, and once it got warm enough, or they made it onto the plains proper, she could change again.

Unchanged was the belt that held her swords, one at each side. It had been near a year and a half since she had used them in any sort of dangerous situation, since the conflict with the dragons. She had worn them for show, with her grandfather at court functions, or as a mark of honor for her part in the conflict, but it had been quite some time since she had _used_ them. Not that was a bad thing. She and Florina both had continued training with the guard, mostly practice weapons; Lyn had no doubt that they could protect themselves.

She buckled the swordbelt around her waist and collected her bedroll and things, packing them away and attaching them to the harness on the pack-mule they had brought with them. Florina's bedroll went on the opposite side, and in short order their campsite had been returned to nearly as pure and unspoiled a glade as could be done. Due to the snow on the ground and in the trees, it was impossible to look _perfectly_ as it had the day before. Only a fresh snowfall could do that, and it would take a heavy one to break through the cover of branches ahead again. This snow, Lyn knew, had fallen well over a week before, and for two nights. It was no wonder it had penetrated so heavily even to the forest floor.

Satisfied, Lyn pulled a blanket from one of the mule's saddlebags and laid it across her own horse. Karis shifted where he stood, prepared for Lyn to leap up onto his back, but she gave his shoulder a pat instead and walked away, across the campsite to where Florina stood with Huey.

Without a word she went to the pegasus' other side and helped to make sure her saddle and trappings were secure for a solo flight, and that nothing could flip up to catch on a wing or one of her legs. When she was sure of her own side she moved around behind and to one side of Florina, reaching around her with one arm and resting her hand lightly on her hip.

Though Florina still jumped with surprise and looked around nervously, Lyn delighted in finally being able to _do_ such things, to share embraces, casual touches, to hold her hand for hours at a time. Florina had never been comfortable at Caelin, with so many men around and so many eyes on her, and knowing what a lot would think if they knew the sort of "friendship" they shared...

Lyn was convinced it would not be as bad as all that, but such things were harsher in Ilia, and Florina was apologetically adamant about it. So they had been confined to brief touches, an occasional stolen kiss, and long looks across the room. For all that the death of her grandfather weighed on her, Lyn's heart was light with the feeling of freedom for the first time in two years. She was going _home,_ and she was going there with Florina, just the two of them.

Simply thinking about it made her smile, enough so that when she realized Florina was staring up at her she blinked in startlement. Huey, too, was looking at her from over Florina's shoulder. "What were you thinking about?" the smaller girl asked, her eyebrows furrowed a little bit in concern.

Lyndis smiled wider and moved her other arm around the girl's waist, lacing her fingers together and resting them against the curve of her behind. "Home," she answered simply, regarding the girl with a look significant enough that it was clear she picked up on that home meant _her._ "Huey all set?" Best, probably, to change the subject before Florina could grow too embarrassed or flustered.

Bowing her head a little, no doubt to hide a blush, Florina nodded. "Yeah, I told her what direction we're gonna come out of the woods from, so she'll just keep a holding pattern on that end and wait until she sees us, then she'll follow until we stop." Behind her, the pegasus nodded in that way that made Lyn wonder, once more, if she were not more intelligent than the simple horse (with wings) that she looked like.

'_It _must_ be the training...'_ But then again, she had seen stranger things.

"Then are _you_ ready?" she asked, raising one hand to cup Florina's chin and raise it to look up at her. Lyn's expression softened, her smile a little chagrined. "I don't want to _force_ you to..."

She could feel Florina's jaw clench beneath her fingers, and her eyes hardened a little, their color that of a calm sea, as if she were preparing to march into combat. "No...Lyn, I want to." The look of control broke a little and she sucked her lower lip between her teeth, worrying at it out of habit. One of many. "I'm sorry, it's...it's hard to get used to." She felt fingers clutch at the material of the front of her dress, hesitant, cautious, like a kitten's paws. "I want to."

Lyn's thumb moved up, tracing the girl's chin and up to her lips, running across her poor abused lower lip. She thought, for a moment, about leaning in to kiss it, but decided not to press it. Florina would continue out of her shyness with time. It happened with starts and hiccups, but she had done it in the past, and she would again. "I'm glad," she answered, closing her eyes and pressing a soft kiss to the girl's forehead.

The plainswoman broke the moment with a grin as she stepped backward toward Karis, and caught one of Florina's hands in her own to tug her along with her. Their fingers slid together with an easy familiarity that helped fight away the chill morning breeze. Florina followed her with a laugh, almost tripping on the little mound of freshly turned dirt that marked where their fire had been. With a flare of her separated dress Lyndis leapt up onto the horse's back and settled easily into the saddle. Not quite as easily as Florina sat Huey, but nearly so. Lyn scooted to the back of the saddle, making as much room as she could for Florina, then smiled down at her and gave her arm a tug.

It was less to actually haul her up than it was to signal that she was ready to help her, and as if they rode double all the time Florina bounced up into the saddle, a leg to either side of the horse as Lyn rode.

"Comfortable?" Lyn's heart fluttered in her chest as Florina molded herself to her, and inappropriate thoughts threatened to draw her attention away as the soft, gently curved warmth settled between her thighs. It was a chore not to add 'because I am' to the end of her question.

Florina nodded without looking back at Lyn, then hesitantly leaned further back against her, shifting a little to the side so that she could rest her head back against her shoulder.

She couldn't resist the chance; Lyn turned her head a little, it didn't take much, and nuzzled the smaller girl's cheek with her own as her lips traced along her jaw. To her pleasure, Florina didn't shy away, and Lyn smiled both to herself and to the pegasus knight, and kissed just the corner of her mouth before pulling away enough to jerk the blanket out from under the edge of the saddle. "Just in case..." With a flourish, though gentle so as not to disturb Florina overmuch, Lyn wrapped the blanket about the both of them and tucked the edges into Florina's hands, so that Lyn could keep the reins in one hand. The other rested on Florina's belly, holding her gently against her until they could begin to move in time to each other with Karis' movements.

Long after they had gotten the rhythm, Lyn's hand remained there, simply because she could.


	2. 01 - In Defense of Hearth and Home

_Author's Note: Yay, next chapter! Hopefully this doesn't feel too disjointed for anyone who hasn't read _Heartsbinding_ which technically comes between the prologue of SotP and this chapter. As usual, I own neither of these lovely characters, and am in no way looking to be sued (though you'd have better luck bleeding a rock, anyway). I think this is the first combat I've written that's ever been put up somewhere, so I'm very interested in feedback on it (and of course everything else)! Thanks in advance, awesome people!_

**Chapter 01**

_In Defense of Hearth and Home_

Lyn wrapped both hands around the warm clay of the mug and sighed both happily and wistfully. Oh, how nice it would be to be _inside _beside the fire, wrapped in blankets, holding Florina...

She had had plans for the evening (and the night); plans to take their relationship beyond kissing. _No-one _she had known in the Lorca had even waited until Heartsbinding to do that much, and yet here they were, a month past the date, and still just cuddling and kissing. Mostly, she knew, it was Florina's nervousness, shyness, hesitance, and general reluctance, but she didn't _blame_ Florina. No, she blamed _Ilia_ for its damn funny ideas about what kinds of affection were acceptable.

The pegasus knight had explained it as being because having children was extremely important in the eternally cold and harsh climate of the northern country. Children to tend the inhospitable ground, to help with manufacturing, to help keep the population up despite blizzards and avalanches and general death by cold. Perhaps it was logical, but to beat such an aversion into its people...

Lyn shook her head and sighed, bringing her thoughts to a halt. What had been done had been done, and she had covered that mental ground innumerable times in the past. Florina was opening up, was the most open and affectionate Lyn had _ever_ known her to be, and the swordswoman was _ecstatic_ about it. But it was harder and harder, sometimes, to hold her so close, to nuzzle the crook of her neck, and _ache_ so badly for her...

'_Eventually. When she's ready.'_ Lyn took a sip of the tea, just recently brought up to her by Florina, and let her eyes make another circuit of the dark hill around her.

She did _not_ make a habit of sitting on the top of their half-built cabin in the dark of night. Though on a brighter night, with more stars and a full moon, it _would_ be awfully romantic. _'I wonder if it's possible to put a window in the bedroom ceiling...'_ Before the idea could do more than occur to her,her musing was interrupted by the very reason she was perched on the roof, wrapped in a cocoon of blankets and bearing tea in a fire-warmed mug. A shadow of movement out of the corner of her eye, this time from the east, had her head snapping around and her hands setting the mug aside.

With the fluidity of long and hard practice, her mug-warmed hands picked her bow up from where it leaned against a wooden support jutting out of the top of the cabin and tugged an arrow soundlessly from the quiver behind it. In a breath's time the arrow was nocked and the bow drawn, her hand brushing against her cheek and ear as she held it steady, sighting down the end of the arrow for the shadow she had seen.

'_There!'_ It moved again, against the breeze rather than with it, and with a soft 'twang' the arrow seemed to disappear from between her fingers and reappear in the chest of a man who tumbled backwards and down the hill. "Four," she murmured quietly, her breath rising in a little puff-like cloud. Lyn sat the bow aside once more and picked up her tea to take another sip from it. The sip turned into a long gulp when she found that it had cooled sufficiently.

It was damn chilly for March. All the more reason to be spending it _inside_ rather than outside on the barely-begun second floor of their cabin. But perhaps that was the bandits' thought too. A nice little cabin, sitting all on its own in the middle of the plains, ripe for the plundering and, perhaps, using.

Four men down and they still hadn't backed off, despite being completely unable to see Lyn from her perch. It helped that she was shielded somewhat by the wall studs for the second story. The few hopeful arrows they had loosed blindly in her direction had either sailed harmlessly between the studs or sunk into them with a soft thud. None had even come close to Lyn herself.

Perhaps _more_ helpful was that, exactly as they had planned for, Florina had placed a hooded lantern in every window, each focused as tightly as possible to increase the light that shone out of each. The mirrored insides of the little lanterns reflected and focused the light from the flame, making them _much_ brighter than a traditional lantern, and allowed for more direction control.

In this case, they provided great beams of light shooting out in all four directions, illuminating the bandits and fouling their vision.

It was quite the clever plan, and one that Lyn was indescribably proud of Florina for thinking of. _'And as well as it works, once we explain to the Kutolah every family on the plains will be protected by it.'_ Sitting on top of the unfinished cabin as she was, trying to look at Lyn was like trying to sight on a bird flying near the sun.

Wood scratching on wood behind her had Lyn turning around where she sat and reaching out one hand to take Florina's as it poked up out of the square opening in the floor beneath her. As quietly as possible, Lyn hauled the smaller girl up and through the temporary trap door.

"Are they still out there?" Florina asked in a soft whisper, mouse-like in its quietness.

Lyn pressed the mug of tea into her hands and leaned across the space between them for a brief (by necessity) kiss. Her fingers brushed Florina's wrist as she released the cup, and Lyn had to step down on the urge to let her fingers explore up the girl's sleeve further. _'Twice damned bandits.'_

"Well there's four _fewer_ out there, but they are definitely still lurking," Lyn answered as she settled back against one of the wooden beams again. She wanted so much to reach out and pull Florina into her lap, but it would be difficult to move for her bow in time to fire if she spotted another bandit. "Did you check all the charms? They're still functioning properly?"

Florina nodded and knelt down beside Lyn, their shoulders lightly touching. "Yeah, they're all still good. Erk said when the effect wears off the text will be gone, but it's all still there as far as I can tell."

With a little sigh of relief, Lyn pushed the worry that the bandits would try to torch the place out of her mind. Erk's fireproofing charms had come just in time, arriving in Bulgar for them to pick up less than two weeks prior. They hadn't looked quite as Lyn had expected. The large sheets of soft vellum had been awkward and difficult to place until they had decided to put them under the rugs. That the arcane circle drawn on them wasn't visible supposedly wouldn't keep them from doing their job in warding the surrounding area against fire.

She was curious how they still allowed candles and fireplaces to be lit without a problem, yet would keep the walls and furniture flame-retardant. Lyn was also too smart to ask, though; Erk's explanation would probably make as much sense to her as a discussion on the intricacies of managing herd animals would to him.

"Then as long as I can keep them back until sunrise, we should be just fine," Lyn answered. She reached out to gently take Florina's wrist and raised her hand so that she could take a sip of the tea without taking it away from Florina. "Thank you for the blankets and the tea, sweetling."

Though it was dark, Lyn's eyes had long ago adjusted enough that she could see the faint blush on Florina's cheeks. _That_ was how she had known which pet name to settle on; it was the one that made her blush and smile the most, of course.

"I wish I could do more to help," Florina answered. The smaller girl scooted around a little bit, trying to be as quiet as possible, then surprised Lyn by laying down on the ceiling/floor and resting her head in Lyn's lap. "I wish I could send you to bed and take a shift on lookout."

There was real regret in her voice, and Lyn smiled down at her reassuringly. "I think Huey would disown you if you ever took up the bow, Florina." The gentle tease brought a small smile to her love's lips. "Though I think for the next few evenings, if they do leave in the morning or sometime tonight, you and Huey should probably fly circuit to see if you can see them." Lyn laid a hand absently on Florina's stomach, rubbing a soothing up and down pattern as they talked. "Though since they _do_ have bows-"

"Stay up out of range, I know, Lyn," Florina cut in, offering a smile to blunt the way she had cut her off. "I've scouted armies that had bowmen before." Florina laid one hand on top of Lyn's, bringing it to a stop, and gave her fingers a little squeeze. "I almost hope they _do_ stick around until tomorrow; maybe seeing a pegasus knight on the wing will discourage them."

Lyn's face darkened, but she nodded. Florina was, of course, perfectly capable of taking care of herself. She had swooped in often enough to rescue Lyn and others in the past, she certainly wasn't going to be done in by some bandit who could only gather the nerve to prey on two girls living alone on the plains. And to try to hold her back would be unfair of her, would make it seem like she didn't have faith in her. And that was a discussion they had finished years ago.

It just seemed even _more_ important, utterly vital, that Florina stayed safe and warm and _here_ in her arms. Heaving a sigh, Lyn leaned down for a kiss that Florina met her halfway for. "I'm sorry," Lyn murmured against the lavender-haired knight's lips, her own forming a sheepish little smile.

Florina giggled and reached up to thread her fingers through Lyn's hair and draw her back down. _'So soft and warm...'_ Florina's tongue darted boldly between the swordswoman's lips, and Lyn raised an eyebrow in surprise as their duel commenced. Lyn pushed aside the little voice that warned her against being distracted and leaned down further as the duel turned to her advantage and her tongue moved to explore Florina's lips.

* * *

To her own surprise, and significant embarrassment, Florina heard herself moan quietly into the kiss. She squeezed her thighs together a little bit, trying to ignore the growing warmth that was spreading through her, ignorant of the cold March breeze. Lyn pulled away a little bit for a breath, and on instinct Florina followed, never quite letting her go. She nipped at the older girl's lower lip, then soothed it with the tip of her tongue. Lyn's laugh was throaty and a little frightening, almost predatory, but in a way that made Florina want to do it again.

The twang of a distant bow was decidedly out of place, all things considered, and took the both of them an extra second to process.

Florina reacted first; bows had a deeper seated meaning to her, and she broke the kiss with a hushed gasp and slid off of Lyn's lap to lay flush against the wood beneath her as a feathered shaft embedded itself in the wooden beam just behind her.

With a quietly muttered curse, Lyn snapped up the bow and an arrow, then rose to one knee and drew the bow in a single fluid motion. For a long moment she stared into the darkness before abruptly relaxing without firing the arrow. "Damn, I don't-"

Another arrow pierced the air near them, this one flying above Florina and beside Lyn, arching over the cabin and striking nothing, but coming close. _'They're trying to distract us!'_ Lyn spun and loosed the arrow before Florina would have thought she had a chance to sight, and Lyn's muffled curse confirmed a miss. Before she could reach for another arrow, a feathered shaft appeared in the wood just beside Florina's head, and the girl squeaked and shimmied backward toward the trapdoor.

"I think they're- damn! Here they come!" Lyn grabbed another arrow and fitted it to the string, and in an instant it was gone.

A loud thump filtered up through the half-closed trapdoor, and Florina jumped in surprise. "Use the doorway as a choke point! I'll get as many as I can!" Lyn's whisper was loud and harsh, as if for use in a play so that the audience could still hear and understand, but it was unlikely the bandits would hear over the sound of them bashing on the front door.

Without replying, Florina slipped back down the trapdoor and dropped to the floor directly, rather than using the rope ladder to get back down. She grabbed at the hilt of a steel sword sitting in easy reach on a crate, already drawn, and stepped around the cold firepit in the foyer. The door visibly shuddered again as someone pounded on it, and the tell-tale squeal of metal bending spoke ill of the hinges' likelihood of surviving the night intact.

It had been some months since she had even sparred, but between the muscle memory that helped the leather-wrapped hilt find a comfortable place in her hands and Lyn's lack of hesitation in trusting the defense of their _home_ to her, she found herself feeling more oddly light and almost...looking forward to it. At least, looking forward to the chance to prove to Lyn that she could take an equal share in _all_ parts of their new lives.

The door shuddered again, the wood creaking, and Florina stepped closer. Whoever it was had a beat that they were striking the door to, and _that_ could be subverted for use against him. Mentally, Florina counted down one, two, three heartbeats, then flipped the bolt lock and twisted the door handle. Pulling the door open with her, Florina stepped lightly backward and the bulky form of a hulk of a man charged through the doorway, tripped on the border of the firepit, and fell straight into the ashes.

The tip of Florina's sword pierced straight down into the back of his neck, scraping against the bone of his spine until it struck the stone at the bottom of the firepit and she yanked it back out.

Florina's stance differed greatly from Lyn's. Really, it was fairly amateur all around; her preferred position in a fight was on Huey's back, and the pegasus had a good mind for how to move to afford Florina the best angle of attack. On foot it was more difficult. She planted bare feet wide and held the sword in both hands at an angle before her, the tip hovering at eye level of the next man in the doorway.

He and his two compatriots behind him blinked in surprise, yet to recover from the door simply _opening_ and their comrade being neatly dispatched by a young girl. Normally Florina resented how young she looked, in comparison to Lyn in particular, who was blossoming into a _beautiful_ woman. Florina still looked the teenaged girl she had been when she had met with Lyn for the second time those few years ago.

In a fight, however, it worked to her advantage. The lot of them grinned, and the two in back traded grins. "Well, ain't this a ni-" Rather than let him complete the thought- _'What sort of fool wants to talk in the middle of a fight anyway!?'_ -Florina lunged forward, switching the sword to one hand, and sunk half the blade's length into the man's stomach before he could even raise his axe. Just as quickly she stepped back into her original position, finding her center, and returned her sword to its two-handed hold.

The man gurgled and coughed, only to moan in pain at the jerking of his innards. Clutching his stomach, he stumbled backward into the other two who stepped quickly out of his way, and then sprawled backward on the ground.

They stared down at him, then back up at Florina, and their grins turned to sneers. "You _bitch!_" As one they lunged for her, impressively coordinated, but apparently ignoring the width of the doorway. One shoved his shoulder against the other in an attempt to make it through, and the second's shoulder slammed into the doorway and sent him stumbling backward. Axe glinting in the little light that escaped from the backs of the lanterns, the one that made it through aimed an overhead strike at Florina.

Long ago, Florina's instinct with a sword had been to try to _block_ such things, but Kent had quickly broken her of that with a demonstration that involved a shattered sword and, had it not been practice, a very dead Florina. Instead she caught the thick bladed axe at an angle and shoved to one side, redirecting the blow around her without stressing the steel blade to the point of breaking. The axe breezed down beside her and she stepped in close enough to smell the sweat on the man's clothes. She brought her knee up into his groin with a sharp jerk, and the axe clattered to the floor behind her.

He collapsed with a wheezing groan while Florina danced to the side and brought her blade up, then down against his neck. It broke with a disgusting snap, and Florina wrenched the sword back up out of the cloven bone and readied it for the third man.

Unusually for a bandit, he had already dropped his axe and raised both hands in hopeful surrender, and Florina saw that he had gone white as a sheet. He was young, on second glance, barely older than her. _'And yet how many has he killed? And how many would he go on to kill later?'_

The decision of whether to accept his surrender was taken from Florina, much to her relief, when the man sprouted a feathered stick from the point where his neck and his shoulder met. He howled in pain such that Florina felt herself shiver, and then fell into silence when a second arrow sunk into his skull and he dropped like a sack of meat to the doorstep.

"Is that the last down there?" Lyn's voice was distant, on the roof, and it cracked in a way that made Florina's pulse race.

She ignored the cold core of worry that rapidly formed in her stomach and stepped over the bodies to glance around outside the doorway, but there were no more in sight. Any who were further distant Lyn would be able to see for herself. "Yes!" she called up, then stepped back into the house and leaned the sword against the open door, then finally bolted for the rope ladder.

Quick as she was, Lyn had already set her bow aside and sat back down against one of the beams that would eventually form a wall of their bedroom. Even in the darkness of night, Florina could see the discoloration spreading down the older girl's sleeve and across the left side of her chest. Though Florina stifled a gasp with one hand and her heart contracted painfully, she didn't stop as she cleared the edge of the trapdoor and crossed the area quickly to kneel beside Lyn.

Of the two of them, Florina was the better medic, and had seen much worse in battles past. She had served alongside the likes of Serra and Priscilla in the aftermath of many battles, helping with mundane practical medicinal skills on those not so badly wounded as to require magic, or when the proper healers were too weary to continue. She had even worked on Lyn a few times, particularly early on before they had made it to Caelin.

The source of the bleeding, of course, was the shoddily crafted arrow sticking awkwardly out of Lyn's left shoulder. Florina kneeled beside her and reached out, laying gentle fingers on Lyn's arm and shoulder near her neck. "It looks like it probably glanced off the bone, but where it's placed..." Florina sucked on her lower lip thoughtfully, moving her fingers lightly toward the entry point of the arrow, ghosting over the material Lyn wore. "I bet it's in the muscle."

The swordswoman's half-sigh half-grunt was not unexpected. Pulling an arrowhead out of muscle was harder and more painful than if it hadn't pierced too deeply. Florina glanced around them, then up at the sky, and bit her lip in frustration. "Do you think you can get back down into the house, Lyn?" Treating her on the roof would be pointlessly difficult, and she would still need to be moved back inside. _'Maybe I can get Huey to-'_

"I think so, if I hang onto one side of the ladder instead of trying to use both hands," Lyn answered, voice strained as she looked at the trapdoor.

Florina reached out to take one of Lyn's hands in both of her own and gave it a squeeze. Lyn turned to look back at her, head cocked slightly. "If not, just say so. I can try to rig something with Huey and we can maybe lift you down to the ground..."

But Lyn shook her head and withdrew her hand slowly from Florina's, using it to pull herself up into a standing position. "No, I'd rather just get back in _now._ I'll be alright." She looked back at the trapdoor and swallowed. "Though you might want to go first..."

'_In case I need to catch you,'_ Florina finished mentally, and nodded. Quickly, she stepped in close and gave Lyn a brief kiss, then stepped over to the rope ladder and shimmied down quickly, but didn't move away from the bottom. "Ready!"

By the time Lyn had gotten down to the bottom and slumped a little bit into Florina's arms, she was breathing and sweating as hard as if she'd been in a drawn out duel, and Florina wasted no time in laying her out in the stone-floored foyer on a thick pallet and several blankets. After kicking the bodies out the front door, Florina got a cheery fire burning and set to work on the wound.

Well supplied with wine, Lyn was able to relax to the point that Florina could help her out of her robes and tight black shift, then drizzle a strong alcohol-based disinfectant on the wound. Actually removing it took some time. Each mis-directed wiggle that caused a gasp of pain from Lyn drove a tiny knife of guilt into Florina's chest, but of course there was little else she could do. But the arrow wasn't buried any deeper than a third of its shaft, and after a quarter hour's work the rough-forged tip came free and the flow of blood doubled.

Florina tossed the arrow into the fire and quickly did what she could to reduce the bleeding after applying another generous amount of disinfectant to it. It was too awkward to apply a tourniquet to, so she was left simply holding a towel against it as firmly as she dared.

Eventually she was able to bandage it with a warm poultice spread over it, by which time Lyn had fallen into a largely alcohol-induced sleep.

Rather than try to move her to bed, Florina dragged more blankets in to cover her with and stoked the fire further before cleaning up after the not-quite-surgery. She retrieved Lyn's bow and quiver from the roof and closed the trap door, then sat to clean her sword. Between the long and repetitive process of weapon maintenance and watching Lyn's chest rise and fall in deep, even breaths, the adrenaline that had been pumping through Florina's system managed to more or less drain out, to leave weariness in its place.

When she was satisfied her blade was free of blood and sharpened to the state it had been before the bandits had struck, Florina fetched a blanket for herself, banked the fire, and laid curled up next to Lyn, though not touching her. The knight tended to move somewhat in her sleep, she had been told, and she didn't want to risk knocking Lyn's shoulder. As if her pillow were magic, sleep took her almost as soon as she laid down.


End file.
